122. Yoga in the Valley

So I went into my, you know, yoga studio first class and they make you feel out the waiver.

Like, is there anything we need to know?

And I'm like, well, I'm going to give you a, you know, laundry list of things you should warn you about.

And then at the bottom, though, I put like, I will not chant.

I will never, never.

And I'm only here until I can do some cooler physical thing because this is lame.

I will not chant.

So you should.

See her now that she is a chanting queen.

So we all adapt.

It truly is a work in more than a workout.

As we said, flexible mind over flexible body.

Down in the valley, moved up from the city.

It's a new way of living and I'm trying to get used to it.

In one park we lose half an ounce of an idiot ordered a Manhattan and they called me a cidiot.

Yeah, and the first look at my feelings.

But it's got to got to read the way when you move to the country.

They can tell when you know the way.

I'm looking at a place but I'm trying to keep fitting in.

1:02

I'm Mat Zucker, and this is Cidiot: learning to live and love life in the Hudson Valley.

So today we're going to talk about yoga.

If you happen to have read my book, Ron Seeks Silver, you may remember that I have a bit of history with yoga.

I joined my first beginning yoga class when I was working way too many hours at a job.

A colleague noticed that I recorded the most hours of any employee in a month.

I was #1 finally, but not in a good way.

So the idea was to address the stress with yoga.

Unfortunately ended up being too competitive in the class, so I dropped it for a while.

Every now and then though, I find myself back in the studio craving a good stretch, which I only can seem to get with yoga.

The language of yoga, sunrise, hums, mantra, reach for the stars, well, throws me off and it all gets a bit woo woo for me sometimes.

So I was very happy to get introduced to Joyce and Amy who run the Yoga House with its three locations in the Hudson Valley, Kingston, Highland as you'll hear, and now Poughkeepsie.

They're hilarious and embraced my opinions.

One of them grew up in the Hudson Valley and 1 is a transplant from Queens, so both a great fit for this show.

They also have a special deal for Cydia listeners.

First time customers can mention Cydia and get a free class and receive access to a special discount on regularly priced class passes and memberships.

I'll put the details in the show notes and on the episode page.

So take a deep breath, pull your shoulders back, find a comfortable Asana Chaturunga, open that third eye and come with me to meet Joyce and Amy as we reach for the sun.

Welcome Joyce and Amy.

Glad to be here.

Super happy to be here.

I'm so excited to talk about yoga.

I have talked about yoga in my personal life, but I've never really talked about it on city yet.

And since you have multiple businesses that are yoga in the valley, you've like seen like the perfect guest to like unpack this and stretch it out to make.

I'm going to be a lot of bad puns this episode.

Bring them on.

OK.

Maybe first describe for both of you what's your connection to the Hudson Valley?

Are you from here?

Did you move here like me?

So I and pretty much born and raised Hudson Valley.

My family moved here when I was in the second grade.

I went up through college here in the Hudson Valley and I bounced between Dutchess County and Orange and Ulster County.

I now live in Ulster.

So yeah, this is home.

And this is Joyce.

I am actually originally from Queens and was living in Queens in the house I grew up in.

And after I got married, it felt a little bit too cramped.

So on a whim, we decided to explore living quote UN quote upstate and drove up to Kingston where I was really just amazed, amazed at everything that I had to offer was different kind of vibe than I guess than I what I was expecting.

But this was back in 2016.

And so we moved up here kind of on a whim, but it was really.

Yeah, yeah.

Kind of just let's try something new.

Let's.

Brian and I painfully labored over this.

We're like, let's try something different, let's try something new.

We had just gotten married so it was like a good way to start a new chapter and I wasn't sure how long we'd stay up here to be honest.

I thought we'd be here for like 2 years, but moving up here it was really easy to get used to.

Having space and quiet and having good people around you also made it really easy to stay.

And so here we are, how many years later, and now it feels like home.

To one of you and we moved up and one of you is from here to me, we can unpack like the city.

Did you ever feel like a a city at little way I define it.

You know someone that's very new and and clueless and doing dumb things.

Or were you like acclimated?

Right.

No, definitely.

I mean it was just the little things I'm like well where am I going to buy this or oh wait, this is what what about this store?

You're just getting used to what the different areas were like.

And then we also had to ask our realtor, like, what's the personality of all of these neighborhoods?

Because these were all just names to us.

So we had no idea where to look for what.

I actually live in Highland now, which turns out to be, oh, this is another funny thing.

So moving up here, I call it Highland, but you know somebody who's lived here for a long time or grew up here because they call it Highland.

Oh, I didn't.

Know that there's a bunch of towns with bizarre pronunciations, like Carmel and.

Court Eckerd Cairo is.

Cairo.

Yeah, there's a bunch of them.

So, you know, just learning little things like that was kind of like, oh, OK, so you can kind of distinguish between who's been here for a while and who the newbies are.

So I'm still, I still have trouble saying Highland, to be honest.

Amy, do you think that we're morons?

No, I mean, words are hard.

Words are hard.

I think that one of the beautiful things about the Hudson Valley is that it has this really rich texture of folks who've been here for a long, long time and then folks who move in and move in for different reasons and different stages.

You know, this community was big into IBM in the 90s, and then that fell to the wayside.

Then in COVID, we had another huge resurgence of people moving in.

So I like the ebb and flow, the folks who've been here for a long time and then then the newbies.

And we add to the complexity and richness of of the community at large.

Yeah, yeah.

Well here let's talk a little bit about yoga because your business is the Yoga House and you've got two or three locations.

So maybe talk about like how you met and how you started this and then we can dig into the topic of yoga and we can all downward dog.

My dog is underneath me right now.

So when I moved up here I was looking for.

Studios to practice.

That I wasn't really sure I needed something.

I needed something.

I met Amy at one of the studios.

She was actually a teacher at one of the studios where I started practicing, actually two of the studios where I started practicing.

And then it turned out that Amy was one of the leaders of a yoga teacher training program that I decided to commit to.

So she was my teacher.

She was.

She taught me all the.

Things we we met in in Poughkeepsie and we have practice together all over the Hudson Valley.

But we opened the studio in Kingston, reopened, I should say in in COVID in 2020.

And then we opened the Highland studio. 2023.

And now we're in.

Poughkeepsie, our third location.

We just opened it two weeks ago, so it's come full circle for us.

So I'm pretty naive about yoga.

I've tried it many times.

I am a frequent graduate of beginner yoga.

I had to stop going in one class because I got too competitive and I wanted to know if I was good.

And it made the instructor.

It's funny, you're the first instructors I've met who are not named Sarah, Sarah, Sarah said, you know, you, we don't do that.

We don't.

I'm like, well, where would you rank me?

Because like, I'm clearly not the best and I'm not the worst.

And she's like, we don't rank people in yoga.

So, so I got a little awkward.

I, I never went back.

And then I tried different studios, which I really like in Hudson and other places and I, I've tried different things.

I tried the sleeping one on Sunday.

I tried the stretchy one.

I I haven't done the hot lava 'cause I think that's I don't know what that is like because is your style like your, your yoga house, a certain kind of style or is it many I don't like maybe describe it.

Sure.

So the Yoga House is founded on a the basic principle that yoga should be accessible, enjoyable and affordable for everybody.

And we mean that passionately.

So we have a really rich and dynamic teaching staff who come from all different backgrounds and styles.

And we layer that together with both gentle and beginner approaches and also folks who kind of lean in that competitive way sometimes as sometimes folks do, but we.

Right, so I'm not the only one, right?

So yoga is not a competitive sport, but it, it, it, you know, just like anything, you have folks who are type A overachievers.

Joyce and I both lean in the type A overachiever category.

So yoga has helped both of us kind of temper, should I say, that part of our personality.

And it's been a process.

But there's all different kinds.

There's gentle restorative, yen, everything up to advanced practices, quote UN quote, where folks are doing inversions and arm balances.

There's all different lineages.

So there's a really wide variety.

And I think that it's important as a beginner to test all of the waters and see and see where you fit.

I mean, see what works for you.

I feel like the criteria for me has always been like, there's the teacher or the instructor, so you either gel with them or or you don't.

Like I think it's like too earnest with me and we're lying on our back and I get a a vegan lecture.

Like I'm out.

You know.

But if it's supportive and it's interesting and she like can deal with my side jokes like I'm, you know, I'm good.

But then also there's like time of day, like sometimes it's the time and it's the thing in your life because you right, you want it to be frequent and you choose based on that.

You have to find a practice at me too, where you are that makes you feel good about going there.

I mean, for me, when I first started practicing it was because I connected to a teacher's SO.

That the whole.

The the pace of the class, the style of the class, everything just kind of resonated with me.

So it made me want to come back and again, again and again.

But there are different types of practices for different types of personalities.

What I think is really interesting about the yoga practice is that it makes you more aware of what you lean into.

It makes you more aware of like what your habits are.

Oh, I, I, I didn't realize that I was so competitive in my sleep habits or whatever it is, you know, and, and it can show up in so many different ways and you see it throughout your practice and it changes all the time.

Like you might feel a certain way one day and then the next day you might feel something else and you might need a different practice.

One of the things that we do at the yoga house is we don't teach to quote UN quote levels.

You know, there's not we teach more to to more like what kind of what kind of energy do you want to feel from your practice today?

Are you looking to chill out?

Do you want something more active and energetic?

So it's really kind of trying to have you make the choice of what kind of feeling you're looking for.

But it's, it's so different from other types of, I guess exercises because it's got a mix of meditation and it's got these other things and it uses like language and it's not exactly Sanskrit, right?

It's like practices and raise the sun and feel the whatever and dog downward and, you know, flow, flow.

And it's got this weird, strange language which always cracks me up.

So I always, you know, giggle during it, but no one else is laughing, by the way.

You said you said yoga's a an exercise and and Joyce and I say a lot to folks to to catch phrases which are yoga's not a workout.

It's a work in We say yoga is not about flexibility of body, it's about flexibility of mind.

So I think when?

Writing those down.

I think when you as a teacher and even as a student, when you approach the practice from those two lenses, that this is not really about like building muscle mass.

Which can happen though.

Can happen, yeah.

Right, you can, right?

But it's it's really about understanding how your your mind and your body and your breath work in connection with one another and leaning into that story of connection.

And also being willing to get outside of your comfort zone to be flexible in your mind and approach.

And the body experience, the mind experience, the spirit experience follows.

Yeah, I agree.

So I think that there's a a real ripple effect when it comes to your yoga practice.

A lot of times the the initial kind of attraction to it is the physical.

It's like you want to feel a certain, you know, you want to, you want to get tone, you want to get this, you want to get more flexible.

So a lot of these physical attributes and then I.

I think there's the.

Ripple effect.

It's like, Oh yeah, I came to this class because I want to work on my balance.

I want to get stronger.

I wanted to work on my core, whatever it is.

And then all of a sudden you realize, wow, I, I'm, I feeling less reactive or wow, I'm sleeping better.

I feel a little bit like a nicer person.

And it just kind of grows from there.

Yeah, that's good.

And let's take a city of view on this too, because I think about, you know, and I live up here full time, but I do take the train back and forth a lot and other people, a lot of my listeners travel back and forth every weekend.

They're really weekenders.

And so people are like in the car a lot or on the Amtrak a lot or on Midtown North.

And if you're physically stressed and it's a long trip and the Taconic is a nightmare, you know, through Putnam, the 15 minutes scary S curves, but you're also like you just physically effects you sitting even me on the train almost every week and stuff like that too.

So are there things that we can do like obviously that helps to go on Sunday or on, you know, to go to a studio or on Thursday when you when you're up at other things you can do on the train or the things you can do in the car or the second you get out of the car.

So you like, you know, I'm moving my hands up right now even though we're on the radio.

So Amy has some really has some great specific stretches that she can recommend.

But I think just to start off, one thing you want to do is just kind of loosen up before you sit down.

You're going to be in a seated position for a while.

So just even just initial stretching before you kind of take a seat can be helpful.

Another thing is I have a lot of lower back issues and one thing that I have to do is I have to sit up.

A lot of times when we're sitting in our chair or sitting in a seat, you're sitting back and it kind of makes you kind of slouch.

Just move a.

Little bit further.

Forward in your seat and you have to sit up taller because your back isn't resting against anything.

So all the sudden you have to support yourself.

Your core gets engaged and you don't want to be sitting like that necessarily for the entire ride, but just to give yourself your lower back a little, a little bit of a break.

Just move back.

And sit up.

So that is just two initial things that I think can be helpful.

And.

Then once you're in the seat, and maybe you're in the seat for quite some time and like you said, you're, you know, clutching to your steering wheel for dear life because you're on the Taconic, even just releasing the finger grip on the steering wheel and you know, flexing through the fingers is just a way to take some tension out of the forearms.

Amy's opening everyone, her hands opening and closing.

I'm doing it as well.

Yeah, you don't even realize sometimes that you're doing it so.

Yeah, yeah.

That's a good one.

Else we do very frequently when we in the cars, we clench our jaw.

So if you have the opportunity to release the bottom jaw, the bottom teeth from the top and just let the jaw hang and then move the jaw gently left to right, it's something that takes pressure out of.

Oh my God, do it right now.

Takes pressure out of and this might seem crazy, but if you have the opportunity to take one hand off the wheel, don't try this at home kids.

If you make your two index finger and middle finger like a peace sign and then bend bend the finger so you have like a little 2 little Bunny ears.

If you can drop your bottom jaw and put your two fingers in your mouth it and hold it for like a 10 second count that also releases tension at the mandible and releases tension at the forehead too.

So there's like little tiny things you can do while driving or well seated that aid the body and just getting a little more spacious and a little more relaxed.

Those are cool.

All right, we're going to, we're going to post with this episode A blog post with some of these so people can use it.

It's probably the first ever City of Guide.

Together.

Brilliant.

I love it.

Hey, just a reminder that the Yoga House has a special deal for City at listeners mention City at and get a free class limited time, one per person, first time customers only and receive access to a special 15% off discount on regularly priced class passes and memberships locations in Poughkeepsie, Hyde Land and Kingston.

You'll find the info on the episode page at cydia.com.

Thanks Joyce and Amy.

Wait, what types do you offer at the different stores?

No shops.

Studio Studio.

Studio.

Sorry, sorry.

Everything we do is to help folks develop a yoga practice that works for them, and we'll support them through a lifetime.

So with that, from a yoga perspective, we offer Hatha yen Vinyasa restored.

I don't know any of those things are what's hatha.

Oh OK great.

Hatha is a practice that alt lex specific poses holds a pose for a duration of time, but doesn't have the connective tissue of what's called a vinyasa of breath linked movement in between transitions and poses vinyasa.

Vinyasa's movement base, it's linking the breath with movement.

So it's more of that inhale, arms up, exhale forward hold.

I feel like I've done that a lot.

I'm constantly flowing and I'm making emotions.

I really like it too.

And then when I feel like when I I can't keep up with everyone, I just kind of a wait and I get back in and no one cares.

That's great.

No one cares for you, right?

It's it's just a.

Flow it's.

Just no, I don't care either.

I'm good with it.

Like I'm good.

I mean, I've told people in Vinyasa class, like if you need to, if you want to be in child's pose, you want to be in shavasana for the rest of the class.

Like that's your class.

That's totally fine.

So it's really just making sure that you feel good as you're moving or not moving in your body when you're on your mat.

So in addition to the breath of yoga offerings, which is pretty much the gamut of all of the yoga lineages, you can think of Ashtanga I and GAR based practices, those are two of the primary lineages that all the rest sort of shoot off from.

In addition to offering all of those, we also leverage other strength and support training practices and modalities such as Pilates.

We do fusion and blend classes.

We offer meditation, Reiki, somatic work.

In addition, we're super excited about the new location in Poughkeepsie.

We offer TRX Yoga, which is a total resistance band exercise.

You're practicing yoga on a suspension trainer that's anchored into the wall.

We also have a bar so.

All of those.

There's a bar Barre.

Not like cocktails.

Oh, sorry.

Sorry, sorry, sorry.

Thank you.

No.

It's your Poughkeepsie has a lot of wonderful bars you can go to right after your happy hour class.

Yeah, so Barra bar in addition.

So it's a ballet based strength training practice.

Which are the best sellers?

Like which are the really the sellout popular classes and which are the losers?

Well, the losers don't stay long on the schedule, but it depends on location.

As we said, Kingston does really like all of the classes in Kingston really thrive.

People like the diversity of a slower practice, a more methodical practice coupled with, you know, folks really enjoy a more active experience as well.

And Highland, those slow burn classes are seem to be a crowd favorite.

And Poughkeepsie folks are really excited about the TRX practice right now.

We have a lot of folks who've never used TRX before, let alone done a yoga practice with the apparatus.

So that seems to be the thing that is most exciting right now, folks.

What's also really interesting is that we can see which classes are busier depending on what's kind of going on with folks what.

Do you?

Mean the So is it the unit?

Restorative practice is a gentle, it's a quieter practice.

It's not a movement based practice.

That's one that's more like easing into stretches.

You're holding posts for a little bit longer.

I've done that.

There's a lot of pillows.

Yeah, yeah, the restorative you use, all the pillows you use, all the things you're fully supported with the restorative practice.

And it's like finding that stretch, finding me to figure out where your your comfort zone is and just kind of seeing how comfortable you can be as you kind of deepen into a stretch or letting the stretch come to you.

But the quieter practices like that tend to be more popular when you know things are getting a little bit crazy on the outside world.

But then there's also people need to move.

People need to move.

It's interesting, like usually around Christmas and around or around the holidays, people just want to move because it's like, I need to like there's all these things going on.

I want to practice.

This is for me.

And I just kind of like need that kind of connection.

So it really it, it, your practice kind of reveals what's going on with the rest of things going on in your life and in the world.

Yeah, I mean, honestly, not to get into politics, but the election people were coming in and droves for either hyper movement like I need to get all this these feelings out, or they just wanted to completely get in a silent cocoon and really work on kind of internal meditative work, relaxation, deep breathing.

Since you've said you've lived in different places, maybe I can ask you for some stereotypes of different towns across the Hudson Valley.

So I'm going to name a town and then you tell me what your instinct is for how they practice yoga.

OK, we'll start with the town.

We've already talked about Kingston.

Artsy creative yoga on the go.

Flowy and progressive.

Highland.

Gentle, slow, funny.

Slow flow jam.

OK, Red Hook.

Posh perfectionism.

Oh, that's good.

Rhinebeck.

Posher Perfectionism.

Poughkeepsie.

Open Mixed.

Definitely mixed.

Open to.

Any and all things.

Hyde Park.

Mature.

And not as open to all things.

Rosendale.

Youthful, energized vinyasa and.

A little quirky.

OK, come up North Catskill.

A little woo woo charged.

OK, hit me Hudson.

Strong flow, a little pediguchi, earnest for ease.

I love it.

Woodstock.

Super emo.

Yeah, all the feels.

Feeling it.

Feel it well, feel it frequently.

Feel it all the time with everything.

And that's our first map of any yoga geography.

How did you?

Even first get into yoga.

So I practiced when I was young with my mom, but it was very much like we're going to the gym and taking a very benign class.

I had really no connection to the practice whatsoever at that point in time.

I was very athletic.

A lot of, you know, physical fitness was a big thing for me, you know, growing up and in my early 20s, I ended up with two back-to-back concussions.

The first was from snowboarding and the second was from playing roller Derby and they were super close together and I had post concussive syndrome for nearly a year.

It was really, really challenging time and someone doctor friends recommended maybe you should try yoga.

And I, it just was like, you know what, I need to do something.

I've completely lost my outlet for, you know, decompression and de stress.

I really needed something to kind of help me cognitively and physically.

So I went into my, you know, yoga studio first class.

They make you feel out the waiver, like, is there anything we need to know?

And I'm like, well, I'm going to give you a laundry list of things you should warn you about.

And then at the bottom, though, I put like, I will not, I will never home.

And I'm like, and I'm only here until I can do some cooler physical thing because this is lame.

I will not chant.

Will not chant so.

You should see her now, but she is a chanting queen.

So we all adapt.

It truly is a work in more than a workout.

As we said, flexible mind over flexible body.

Yeah, so, so within a few weeks, I'm like, God, I'm feeling better and wow, my vocabulary is coming back and this is amazing.

So I just got hooked and kept practicing and practicing and jumped in.

And it is honestly the thing that it like saves, has saved my life in every conceivable way.

I am a much cooler person post concussion with yoga.

I have to ask because I know the listeners heard that roller Derby.

Yes, yes, OK, we're going there.

We're going there.

I am one of the original members of the Hudson Valley Horrors roller Derby team.

We used to play in Hyde Park.

My friends are still part of the team.

I grew up, quote UN quote, grew up in the roller Derby circuit.

In fact, I I met my wife playing roller Derby.

We say it's love at first hip check, literally love at first hip check.

So it's, it's definitely part of, of, of who I am.

And the great thing now is all of my old roller Derby friends, they practice yoga with me and it's really big.

We've all come full circle.

It's pretty pretty amazing.

And they call each other by their roller Derby names and like, Oh my God, I have no idea who you're talking about.

And people like know them by their nicknames.

Wait, Amy, what's your roller Derby name?

Puffy bangs was my name because I used to have really big puffy bangs in the like late 80s early 90s.

So I.

Took a drag name.

My my wife's name is Storm Generator.

My best friend is Pinky Squares.

There's a lot.

OK, that made that made my day.

OK, so Joyce, please tell me you are like an Archer or something like you came ahead.

And how?

Did you get into yoga?

I am the opposite.

I have no athletic coordination and no, I am not competitive at all.

So not team sports kind of gal.

I was actually on vacation and the reason I signed up for this vacation is because they gave you daily massages.

So I was like, sign me up for that.

And then Oh yeah, we have to do yoga every single day.

So did the yoga and I was like, huh, OK, I think I can do this.

Like it kind of like was something that I felt like I could physically achieve and I felt good doing it.

So when I came back from the vacation, I started looking at other yoga place, the yoga classes, and then I found a teacher.

Who?

Whose?

Playlist I loved and who is you know, the time was right and everything just kind of fell into place and that made me start just practicing more regularly.

Love it, love it.

But again, that ripple effect that I was talking about earlier, I mean, I was like road rage, like total just fly off the hand.

I have a very short fuse.

Very very very short.

Fuse It's a little Queens, not the stereotype.

Yeah, I know, I know You can take the girl out of Queens, but you can't.

So.

Yeah, I it's, it's very true.

How?

It, it's helped me to calm down.

It's definitely helped me calm down to help me sleep better because that class that I had originally that that drew me into the practice was at 10:00 at night.

So I would have to drive 30 minutes to get there and then 20 minutes to get back because there was no traffic by the time I was done and it was like midnight by the time I was going to bed.

And I, it was, it was perfect.

Like I slept, I slept through the night.

I just felt less reactive and I was in a better mood for more often than not.

OK, so tell me about your favorite place in the Hudson Valley.

I ask almost every single guest this.

I guess you could make it about where you would go do a stretch or something or a yoga thing, but it could just be where you read a book too.

So maybe each of you could tell me like, what's your favorite place in Hudson Valley?

I'm trying to make a.

Big map.

So I love the Walkway Over the Hudson.

I love it because it's connects two of our studios, Highland and Poughkeepsie.

And so it's feels literally like this bridge between our two communities and two worlds.

I love getting up there at that height, being able to look at at the majestic Hudson River, take a deep breath and just be embodied and be present for the moment of time that I'm on the bridge.

It's great for whatever mindset you're in.

If you're feeling like you need to, you know, jog the entire bridge or take your bike, go for it.

If you want to take your dog for a gentle stroll, go for it.

The options kind of I feel like the bridge, just like a yoga practice kind of meets you where?

You are Amy kind of hijacked my my my answer because I was going to say walkway over the Hudson specifically because I live in Highlands and it was one of the first things that I really, really kind of blew my mind when we moved up here was like, Oh my God, this is right here.

But it's beautiful.

Just even ride your bike or.

Walk across the dogs love it.

So it's just it's a great thing to have.

Thank you both.

I'll I'll see you in the studio.

I'll be the one in the back row in Child's pose in Lululemon for boys.

Making jokes and.

We can't wait to have you in the studio.

Come, come, come.

We're going to convert you to look if I can do it.

You can do it.

You can do roller Derby, you can do anything.